Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
When
I was a junior in high school, there was this girl I had a big crush on. She sat right in front of me in Spanish
class. She was attractive, kind,
and into her faith: the trifecta of beauty. But she and I weren’t really good friends. So I had to figure out a way to get to
talk with her, and more than just comparing notes for Spanish class. I soon learned that she was into
country music, so I started listening to country, too. Before that, my only exposure to
America’s music had been the classic stuff (like George Jones or Merle Haggard)
I’d hear at my grandparents on a Saturday morning listening to WITL as they
cooked pancakes and sausage for us.
But, I started listening to both old and new so this girl and I could
talk.
I’m
sure I’m not the only guy who has “expanded his horizons” in order to talk more
with a girl. In fact, I’d guess
that most of you husbands have changed certain things in order to impress your
wives, even if it was just learning how to put the seat down. And many wives here have probably
learned to put up with idiosyncrasies they never envisioned because they love
their husbands.
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| According to tradition, the Sycamore tree which Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus in Jericho |
Love
of a person, whether it be just a crush, or even into marriage, changes us, and
hopefully for the better. When we
love someone, we are willing to do things differently for the one we love. We see that in our Gospel today. Zacchaeus comes into contact with
Jesus, whom he loves, and Zacchaeus changes. Jesus doesn’t even say anything to him, other than asking to
eat at his house, and Zacchaeus affirms, “‘Behold, half of my possessions,
Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I
shall repay it four times over.’”
Zacchaeus loves Jesus enough that he is willing to give away half of
what he owns to the poor, and to make good any cheating that he had done before
when collecting people’s taxes.
Here
we are, the People of God, sons and daughters adopted by God the Father in
baptism, many of us coming into contact with Jesus at least once a week as we
hear His Word, are reminded of His presence through the ministry of the priest,
and receive the Body and Blood of Jesus into us. We have come to meet Jesus and He makes Himself known to us
in the People, in His Word, in the Priest, and especially in the Eucharist, and
are we different? Are we willing
to change for the one we claim to love?
If not, how much do we really love Him?
One
of my favorite scenes from “The Godfather III” is when Michael Corleone is
making his confession. Cardinal
Lamberto, who is hearing his confession, picks up a little rock that has been
sitting in a fountain and says, “Look at this stone. It has been lying in the water for a very long time, but the
water has not penetrated it.” He
breaks the stone. “Look.” he says,
“Perfectly dry. The same thing has
happened to men in Europe. For
centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity, but Christ has not
penetrated. Christ doesn’t breathe
within them.” We could say the
same thing about us Americans. For
over two centuries we have had the faith active in the US, sometimes under
great persecution, but has Christ effected us? Has Jesus changed us?
Do we love Jesus enough that we want to change how we live?
Will
it be hard to change? More
difficult from some than for others.
We are enmeshed in a culture of death that sacrifices the life of an
innocent child for the sake of a comfortable lifestyle; that desires comfort
above all else; that objectifies men and women as tools to satisfy our lust and
libido, whether on the internet, or in real life, even in marriages; that
denies that anyone can say one thing is true and another is false because
everyone has their point of view, and we can’t really know truth; that rewards
power and mocks obedience to legitimate authority. It is the culture in which I grew up; it is the culture in
which many of you grew up; it is the culture in which we all now live. But it is not significantly different
from the culture in AD 33, or 67, or 90.
The only thing that is different is that in our country, we have the
right to freely practice our religion, at least for now. We face a similar culture as the
Greco-Roman culture of the time of the greatest flourishing of our faith, the
largest explosion of heart-felt conversions. The pagans didn’t change their life because the philosophy
and the rules of the Christians made more sense or made life easier, they
changed their life because they fell in love with Jesus, and every other change
they had to make was worth it because of His love and the gift of eternal life
that He offered to those who follow Him.
This
New Evangelization that we keep talking about is all about getting to know and
love Jesus. We have received the
Sacraments, which are catalysts for a relationship with Jesus, but I dare say
that many of us in this celebration of the Mass are practical strangers to
Jesus. We know Jesus as well as we
know President Obama, or Pope Francis, or Miguel Cabrera. We know of them, maybe we know a lot
about them, but we don’t know them personally. And because we don’t know Jesus personally, we cannot be in
love with Him; we cannot love a person that we don’t know. Zacchaeus was willing to go out on a
limb—literally—to get to know Jesus, and so was able to love Him and be
transformed by that love. What are
we willing to do to get to know Jesus?
If
we are willing to change what music we listen to, or how we appear, or what we
do for a person we merely crush on, let alone another human person we truly love,
why are we not willing to change for the Divine Person who loved us so much,
even when we were unlovable, that He died for us? Why do we pretend that being a stranger to Jesus is an
acceptable way to live our Catholic faith? Are we afraid to change? Are we afraid of what Jesus will demand? Pope Benedict XVI once said:
Are we
not perhaps all afraid in some way?
If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves
totally to him, are we not afraid that he might take something away from
us? Are we not perhaps afraid to
give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so
beautiful? Do we not then risk
ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? …No! If we let
Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what
makes life free, beautiful and great.
No! Only in this friendship
are the doors of life opened wide.
Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly
revealed. Only in this friendship
do we experience beauty and liberation.
And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of
a long personal experience of life, I say to you…Do not be afraid of
Christ! He takes nothing away, and
he gives you everything. When we
give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to
Christ—and you will find true life.”
Luckily,
as our first reading states, the Lord is merciful and patient. He gives us time to know Him more
deeply and love Him. He stands
knocking at the doors of our hearts, waiting for us to answer. But we do not have unlimited time. Brothers and sisters, “now is the
acceptable time! Now is the day of
salvation!” Join a Bible study;
join a faith-sharing group; serve at a soup kitchen; read books on the faith
like the US Catholic Catechism for Adults,
YouthCat, and books on the lives of
the saints. Do all you can to see
Jesus, to know Jesus, to love Jesus.
“Do not be afraid!”